Welcome to the mid-August edition of @The Cedar! Even as we build up towards the free season opener with Kevin Kling, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles, and Orange Mighty Trio (9/4) and the opening weekend shows by Punch Brothers featuring Chris Thile (9/5), powerhouse Irish roots rocker Damien Dempsey with The Sweet Colleens ((9/5), and the Bill Kubeczko Appreciation Concert with Eight Head, Ruth MacKenzie and Sowah Mensah (9/6), lots of other things are happening at The Cedar: over 80 shows will be ticketed and on sale by 2pm 8/22; a massive record and book show takes place this weekend (8/22--8/24), and we continue to make radical improvements to the facility as we prepare for refinishing of the dance floor in the main room.

Welcome to the August edition of @The Cedar! Summer is rolling by fast, and preparations for The Cedar's fall season are coming along very nicely, with many shows already on sale (see below). First up, however, is this Wednesday's performance by Habib Koite with his longtime band Bamada:

Welcome to the mid-July edition of @TheCedar! A terrific line-up of acts are being booked for The Cedar's 20th season, which we'll be kicking off on September 4 with a special event (mark your calendars now, and watch this space and the Cedar website for more details nearer the time!).

Tickets go on sale this weekend for some of the best fall acts, including Ani DiFranco, The Magnetic Fields, Crooked Still, Willy Porter with Natalia Zukerman, Josh Rouse and the Red House Records 25th Anniversary Grand Finale Concert with John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson and Cliff Eberhardt--see below for more details.

Welcome to the mid-June edition of the @The Cedar! There's some good news, and some bad news this issue. The bad news is that the Bill Frisell show scheduled for this Saturday, June 21 has been cancelled due to a serious family emergency. Ticket-holders are advised to refer to the Cedar Refund Policy for information on how to apply for a refund. As announced previously, the Nina Nastasia concert originally scheduled for Sun June 22 has also been cancelled due to circumstances beyond The Cedar's control.

Welcome to the June edition of @The Cedar! There's still time to enjoy some great summer-themed music during June (including a just announced morning children's concert by Farmer Jason (6/28), the alter ego of Jason Ringenberg--veteran cowpunker of Jason and the Scorchers fame) before we take a break from presentations during July. We'll be back with a special one-off concert by Habib Koite and Bamada on August 6, and then the new season will open proper after Labor Day weekend, with several of the biggest shows going on sale at noon this Friday (6/6): Balkan Beat Box (9/14), Dougie MacLean (9/17), and the discounted Midnight Sun Festival Passes for the Tenth (and final annual) Nordic Roots Festival (9/25--9/28). This year's Festival features a compelling line-up, including many of the very best of the artists to have graced the Festival over the years: (Frigg (FIN-NOR), Hedningarna (SWE), Hoven Droven (SWE), Hurdy-Gurdy (SWE), Ranarim (SWE), Triakel (SWE), Väsen (SWE)), some brand-new talent (Detektivbyrån (SWE) and creative new combinations such as Waltz With Me (Annbørg Lien, Bruce Molsky, Mats Edén, Christine Hanson). Tickets for individual Nordic Roots Festival concerts will go on sale on August 1.

"Music works its invisible magic for a moment, then it is gone."
So says Philip Ball, in an article on the science of music in a recent issue of top science journal Nature. While it might come as a surprise that music is now seen as a legitimate subject for scientific analysis, Ball concludes with the recognition that it is perhaps ultimately fruitless to define music, and that there are likely limits in how far we can understand music, even though it be a creation of the very same brains we use to analyze it. It then becomes up to us to simply be satisfied with seizing that moment of magic, before it is gone.

Don't risk missing out on the magic of the concerts at The Cedar in the rest of May and June. Before I give the run-down on those, here is an important announcement:

Welcome to the May edition of @The Cedar! According to Wikipedia, "May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations..." That is one way to describe the season we find ourselves in, and while our May 1 show ( a CD release for acoustic guitarists Ben Woolman and Dan Schwartz' New Roots Duo) is perhaps going to be popular rather than raucous, we do have a number of shows scheduled in May that we expect to be both popular AND raucous, with Th' Legenday Shack*Shakers (5/20), and Asylum Street Spankers (5/17) being the first to come to mind.

Greetings from The Cedar! While The Three Tenors are sadly no longer all with us, The Cedar is coming to the rescue of music-lovers everywhere with the latest concept in musical marketing: The Three Peters! Not one, not two, but three Peters on three consecutive nights in April. First up is country singer and songwriter for the stars (Martina McBride, Faith Hill, Bonnie Raitt, Patty Loveless and Trisha Yearwodd have all covered her songs), Gretchen Peters (4/17), whose latest offering Burnt Toast and Offerings comes to terms with her recent divorce and mid-life epiphany. Next, The Cedar hosts everyone's favorite Ukrainian-Minnesotan Mandolin Man and Fiddler, whether on or off the roof, Peter Ostroushko with the Heartland Band (with the extraordinary talents of Dan Chouinard, Dirk Freymuth, Marc Anderson, Ruth MacKenzie, Joel Sayles) (4/18). And bringing a humorous spin on life with his latest release Novelties, singer-songwriter Peter Mayer (4/19) concludes the series with a show that has sold out the past two years, and appears likely to do the same again this year.

Greetings from The Cedar! If the promise of a Minnesota Spring is looking increasingly shaky, then relax knowing you can at least put your trust in the musical line-up showing up at The Cedar during April.

This month, there are many acts highlighting different sides of World music, including music from Iran (Haale (4/2)), Ireland (Daithi Sproule, The HiBs (both on 4/4), Katie McMahon (4/12)), South Africa (Vusi Mahlasela (4/27)), India (Debashish Bhattacharya (4/11)) and France (Babylon Circus (4/20).

Billy Bragg is coming! On Fri June 13, the iconic British singer-songwriter and political activist will be making his first visit to The Cedar, in support of his first new studio album in 6 years, Mr Love and Justice. There'll be limited seating to comfortably accommodate a good sized crowd, but even so, we expect this show to sell out early. Tickets are now on sale as of today, available from Ticketweb, The Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2) and concessions counter, and Cedar outlets (Electric Fetus, Global Village, Irish on Grand and Homestead Pickin' Parlor.